What Makes Citigroup (C) an Attractive Stock?

Hotchkis & Wiley, an investment management company, released its “Hotchkis & Wiley Large Cap Disciplined Value Fund” second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The S&P 500 rose 10.9% in Q2 2025, despite recent volatility. After the “liberation day” tariff announcement on April 2, the index plunged over 12% in four days. The market rebounded from this low, nearly +25% over the next ~11 weeks, to finish the quarter at an all-time high. In this environment, the fund performed in line with the Russell 1000 Value Index and returned 3.37% vs. 3.79% for the index. Please review the fund’s top 5 holdings to gain insight into their key selections for 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Hotchkis & Wiley Large Cap Disciplined Value Fund highlighted stocks such as Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C). Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) is a diversified financial services holding company. The one-month return of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) was 9.43%, and its shares gained 46.33% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 29, 2025, Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) stock closed at $94.48 per share, with a market capitalization of $173.928 billion.

Hotchkis & Wiley Large Cap Disciplined Value Fund stated the following regarding Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) is one of the largest US banks by total assets. Investment in its IT, compliance and risk capabilities have pressured margins and returns over recent years, obscuring the banks strong core franchise. With these investments now largely complete we expect Citi’s expense to decline and its margins and returns to be more consistent with peers. Citigroup performed well in the quarter on improved profitability and positive operating leverage. We think that C is very undervalued on our normal expectations and would still be attractive even if they do not fully achieve their goals.”

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Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 96 hedge fund portfolios held Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) at the end of the first quarter, which was 101 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) and shared the list of most undervalued blue-chip stocks to buy according to hedge funds. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) was the top contributor to Oakmark Fund’s performance during Q2 2025. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.